Making a whisky and compressing heads with a LM still
Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2020 11:34 amHi all,
This is more a question directed at running a whisky through a still in a way to compress the fores and head and what will happen to the finished product.
I wasn't sure if this is best placed in the still section because it's less about building and more about running it for the finished product. Which is more the last part of a recipe...
I've made two simple mash's of:
4kg Golden Promise
1kg Peated
200g Light Crystal
Aimed for a clean ferment.
Running this as a 1.5 run, so I've stripped the low wines of the first ferment and adding to the second charge for a final spirit run.
I'm using an offset head still with all packing removed and reflux turned off as a pot still (and yes, this does work as well as any other pot still because there's only passive reflux in the column if the reflux valve is off).
Question: Is there merit in running the still in full reflux and compressing and drawing off the fores and heads, then turning the reflux valve off and operating in pot still mode for the remainder of the run?
My logic is that this method will yield a larger and cleaner hearts cut as the heads and fores have already been compressed and removed more efficiently from the charge, all the flavour will have been stripped from the fores and heads and returned to the boiler, then going back into pot mode should retain all the flavour with a cleaner hearts run.
I guess this is the principle of a plated column, but keen to hear of people have experimented in distilling a whisky or rum this way?
Cheers
This is more a question directed at running a whisky through a still in a way to compress the fores and head and what will happen to the finished product.
I wasn't sure if this is best placed in the still section because it's less about building and more about running it for the finished product. Which is more the last part of a recipe...
I've made two simple mash's of:
4kg Golden Promise
1kg Peated
200g Light Crystal
Aimed for a clean ferment.
Running this as a 1.5 run, so I've stripped the low wines of the first ferment and adding to the second charge for a final spirit run.
I'm using an offset head still with all packing removed and reflux turned off as a pot still (and yes, this does work as well as any other pot still because there's only passive reflux in the column if the reflux valve is off).
Question: Is there merit in running the still in full reflux and compressing and drawing off the fores and heads, then turning the reflux valve off and operating in pot still mode for the remainder of the run?
My logic is that this method will yield a larger and cleaner hearts cut as the heads and fores have already been compressed and removed more efficiently from the charge, all the flavour will have been stripped from the fores and heads and returned to the boiler, then going back into pot mode should retain all the flavour with a cleaner hearts run.
I guess this is the principle of a plated column, but keen to hear of people have experimented in distilling a whisky or rum this way?
Cheers